Contents

Background

Morphine is based on an opioid chemical and is commonly used as an sedative and painkiller. Although clinical medicine, it is heavily controlled by the government to prevent abuse, addiction, illegal trafficking and in worse cases even death.

Due to extreme conditions during war time, the U.S. Government issued morphine to help soldiers during World War II. Morphine would help relieve physical pain from wounds as well as psychological stress from battle fatigue. Morphine was stored and administered using a device known as a "syrette" which consisted of a hypodermic needle and a flexible tube, which would be squeezed to move the fluid through the needle for injection. Syrettes were packaged in small cardboard boxes which could be carried in the kits of medical personnel.

However, a downside to morphine is it's extreme potency. Exceeding the normal dose even by a small amount can be fatal. Since morphine is a central nervous system depressant, overdoses can cause respiratory and heart failure by suppressing respiration and blood circulation. Another set back of morphine is addiction, since it may be taken for the feelings of euphoria and relaxation it induces, thus creating psychological and physical dependency.

Events of L.A. Noire

As World War II came to an end, the Government and the Military had a surplus of morphine. In early 1947, a group of the Sixth Marines were shipped back home to Los Angeles on board the SS Coolridge, along with a cargo of army supplies including half a million morphine syrettes. Realizing the street value of morphine, Marine Medic Courtney Sheldon convinced to his fellow Marines to band together to steal the morphine, ultimately to sell on the streets. Despite objections from Jack Kelso, the heist proceeded as planned. Interestingly enough, Cole Phelps was a former member, but he already joined the LAPD at the time.

After committing the theft, the distribution was headed by Sheldon, who got into contact with the Cohen Crime Syndicate through Lenny Finkelstein, giving him one-third of the shipment. Sheldon intended to distribute the morphine legitimately to hospitals and abortion clinics. However, Mickey Cohen peddled the morphine onto addicts, exploiting and preying on the desperate and addicted. The morphine syrettes gave Mickey a considerable competitive edge in the city's drug narcotics rackets, due to the fact that the morphine was easy to administer and did not require cooking, growing or preparation in contrast to cocaine, marijuana or heroin. However, addicts began to die from overdoses.

Sheldon met with Mickey to change this arrangement. Mickey decided to remove the packaging and water down the morphine in a large vat to make it less potent, to ensure returning customers. In addition, he wanted to offer Courtney $50,000 as compensation. However, Sheldon disagreed with Mickey's business agenda plans, informing him that it would be more dangerous to water it down. Sheldon subsequently rejected his buy-out offer, and withheld the rest of the supplies from Mickey.

With the remaining two-thirds of the surplus shipment left, Sheldon panicked over how to dispose of the morphine before Mickey could steal it from him. Sheldon met with Jack Kelso in his office at California Fire & Life. Sheldon explained the situation that the morphine was supposed to go to abortion clinics and doctors, but that Mickey moved it onto addicts, adding that they couldn't cope with the purity. Jack assumed Sheldon's problem was local gangsters being dishonest. Courtney disagreed and said his problem was people dying at an alarming rate, and that if it got back to them, then they would all end up in jail. Jack said that this wasn't the war and said he couldn't just wave a magic wand to clean up this mess. Courtney said he wanted Jack to negotiate with them. Jack said that force is the only thing gangsters understand, adding that they proved it by being more vicious than the British, Irish, and the Dutch. Courtney said they were better-trained. Then, both Kelso and Courtney met with Mickey Cohen himself. Jack said the morphine was to disappear back into the Pacific Ocean, adding that they made a big mistake, and would like to back out gracefully. Mickey said that wasn't their normal way of doing business. Jack warned Mickey that if his gang members went after Kelso's former squad, then they'll be forced to go after them. Mickey viewed it as a serious threat, but Kelso said he doesn't make threats and walked away. Sheldon gave Mickey a brief explanation about Jack's combat time in Okinawa. Sheldon confided in his mentor and friend, Dr. Harlan Fontaine, revealing his involvement in the Coolridge robbery and distribution of the morphine with Mickey Cohen. Fontaine provided a solution for both their benefits. Fontaine promised to take the remaining morphine from Sheldon and promised to distribute it legally to clinics, in exchange he would be able to reinvest the money that he would usually spend on morphine into a housing development plan for returning GI's. Sheldon, realizing that he could solve his problems, and help out returning GI's, confidently accepted Dr. Fontaine's offer.

In actuality however, Fontaine took the opportunity to become a drug dealer himself, selling the morphine to students and addicts under the pretense of administrating them as "prescription". With the proceeds, Fontaine was able to invest and become part of the Suburban Redevelopment Fund.

Meanwhile, Mickey entrusted his stash of the morphine to Lenny, leaving him in charge of the drug operation and distribution, though he was also primarily a patsy. Using his shut-down ice company as a front, Lenny kept the morphine in cold storage and would later use Jose Ramez's furniture and delivery store to covertly transport the morphine to suppliers and distributors. Suppliers included Merlon Ottie and Jermaine Jones. Jones would send the morphine syrettes to distributors such as Fleetwood Morgan, who used the Black Caesar Food Hut to discretely sell morphine along with servings of popcorn, taping the syrettes underneath cups, even in broad daylight.

However, much of the morphine unaccounted for was still being dealt throughout the city. The previous day, a judge in Pasadena passed away, and had a personal stash of 20 syrettes. To make matters worse, Mickey decided to retaliate against Sheldon by sending hitmen against his former Marine unit soldiers who were responsible for the Coolridge heist in order to pressure Courtney into giving him the rest of the morphine. Cohen had his goons go after Eddie McGoldrick in his nightclub, Felix Alvarro at his bus on North Hollywood, Chris Majewski at Robert's Diner, Patrick Connolly and John Higgins at Grauman's Chinese Theater, and Michael Driscoll and Walter Beckett at Hollywood Post Office. However, due to the intervention of Cole Phelps and Roy Earle, Alvarro, Connolly, and Higgins survived and Sheldon did not give the rest of the morphine to Mickey. On a side-note, 2 musicians named Bittleston and Bowe were murdered at the 111 Club. On another side-note, Beckett said to tell Courtney "Bad luck... it was worth a try." and had a Polar Bear Ice Company card with Lenny's name on it. In addition, Mickey had a meeting place set up for Courtney, but Phelps and Roy went there instead and killed all of Mickey's men. On a third and final side-note, Mickey denied any knowledge of Lenny's plans or involvement when Phelps and Roy interviewed him at the Mocambo. Phelps and Roy interviewed Kelso as well as Courtney at Hollywood Police Station. Cole said he didn't care who went to jail, as long as the morphine was taken off the streets.

Ironically, Fontaine would later overdose Sheldon with morphine, murdering him in an attempt to cover his tracks. After Fontaine's death by Ira Hogeboom, which was investigated by the LAPD, Phelps and Herschel Biggs discovered Fontaine's remaining cache of the morphine in his office. It is unknown how much Fontaine still had and how much he sold, as well as how much investment money he made, however presumably the amount that was left in his office was returned to the government. On a side-note however, Sheldon's corpse was later found in an alleyway and Roy Earle said it was his case. Phelps then immediately snapped and explained that Courtney went into places with a medical kit and Colt .45 to make places like the Valley of Death look like a picnic. He said that even though Courtney was involved in the morphine, he had a jugular wound, making it a murder case, adding that Sheldon was a better man than he'll ever know. He then warned Roy to stay away before things got ugly. Likewise, he warned the patrolman to keep Roy away from the evidence. However, it is unknown whether Sheldon's murder was successfully solved or not.